“Story of Yanxi Palace” Spin-Off Starts Production

Hit Chinese drama Story of Yanxi Palace <延禧攻略> will be getting a spin-off and a sequel.

The untitled spin-off of the original series, which has started production, is set during the reign of the Qianglong Emperor. A young woman known by the name Wei Yingluo (Wu Jinyan吴谨言) finds her way into the palace to search for the truth behind her older sister’s death. She rises within the ranks and eventually falls in love with the emperor (Nie Yuan聂远), becoming empress. Based on the book of the same name, the drama is produced by Yu Zheng (于正) and has just completed its run on iQIYI.

According to official reports, the spin-off tells the story of Fuk’anggan, Fuheng’s son, who believes Yingluo’s daughter Princess Shaohua to be his mother’s killer. To gain the upper hand, Fuk’anggan manipulates Shaohua’s trust. Princess Shaohua will be played by 24-year-old Rain Wang Herun (王鹤润), while Fuk’anggan will be played by 23-year-old Wang Yizhe (王一哲).

As for the official sequel, Yu Zheng has stated that he is producing a sequel; original cast member Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼) has also expressed her interest in returning.

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How do you feel about this article?“Story of Yanxi Palace” Spin-Off Starts Production

@funnlim@jimmyszeto They (meaning the series) didn’t change history….Yingluo doesn’t become Empress but rather the Grand Imperial Consort (the one who oversees the harem and has the same powers as the Empress). They also followed history with Charmaine’s Empress character as well in terms of what happens to her at the end….

As for Fukanggan, we know from what happened in the series that he’s not Fuheng’s son….as for whether he’s the Emperor’s son, it’s explained in the other articles about the spinoff the “story” behind how he was conceived and supposedly his birth father isn’t Qianlong….

@funnlim
There’s that one guy, a tutor or poet who always like Er Qing so I bet the king was too drunk to do anything to her that night.

Having very very low expectation this time around because YZ’s sequel always sucks so badly. The casts don’t seem too good looking…WJY was average looking at the beginning but it was because of strong character and strong acting that builded her up. Don’t know if everyone will have such luck.

The guy that u mentioned is Fuheng’s brother…whom i think is the father of Fu Kang An.

Yes, i agreed with u that Wu Jin Yan is average looking but her character in the series is likeable and her acting is commendable. I’m glad that i continued to watch this great series despite unfavourable comments about the look of the lead actress that causes some picky audiences to choose not to watch the series in the beginning.

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In the novel, Fu Kang An is Er Qing and Fu Heng’s brother’s son. It’s implied in the drama where Er Qing caught him drawing her portrait.

Trivia: In history, it was rumoured Fu Kang An was Qianlong’s secret son (this was also used as plotline in Jinyong’s Flying Fox of Snowy Mountain). Apparently, Fu Heng’s wife was nicknamed as Qing’s No.1 beauty, and Qianlong had an affair with her. Qianlong in history doted on Fu Kang An and he enjoyed the same privileges as other princes. Also, his two older brothers Fu Ling An and Fu Long An married princesses, but not him, which make people wondered why as evidently, Qianlong favored this ‘nephew’ the most.

By the way, the spinoff was filmed concurrently with Yanxi. I think the episodes will be very limited. As for the sequel, Yu Zheng has mentioned in group chat before but nothing was conclusive. Rather than sequel I think he will make it a different story and characters.

@funnlim Apparently, they had cut a lot of scenes out of the series. I had read somewhere that the series was originally around 90 something episodes but they had to cut it down to 70. Some of the storylines that got cut include the part about Fukhangan’s identity (the part @sehseh mentioned from the novel about him being Er Qing and Fu Heng’s brother’s son) and also the backstory about Ying luo’s Sister, who apparently had a connection to Consort Gao. The storyline that got cut the most though (which was already widely reported on earlier) was of Consort Shun, who now only has a few episode storyline near the end of the series (her role was actually much bigger and her backstory was more fully explained).

So basically, if some of the storyline doesn’t really make sense, especially in the second half of the series (as that is supposedly where majority of the cuts took place), that’s most likely because that portion of the storyline got axed.

Rumor has it that some of that lost footage might show up in the spinoff and/or the sequel but of course none of that is confirmed.

@llwy12 Consort Shun axed scene won’t see the light of day. SARFT have issues with her original role being Consort Rong (Fragrant Consort), an Uyghur descent who is against Qianlong. Yu Zheng mentioned that they disliked her being ‘too capable, too strong’ and had to cut out most of her scenes. SARFT would not allow any portrayal on media that will ‘harm’ national unity, considering how they are still suppressing the rebellions in Xinjiang, where Uyghurs ethnic resides.

@sehseh Yea, I had read about that too. Too bad indeed. I personally hate it when politics gets mixed in with entertainment but I guess it’s something that’s unavoidable nowadays.

I think for me, the one scene I really really want to see restored is Er Qing’s death scene. This might sound cruel but man I wanted to watch that despicable woman die, lol. The actress who played Er Qing said in an interview that they might bring that scene back at some point (since so many netizens were commenting about it), so definitely going to watch out for that….

@m0m0 Sorry, but no…BTROC can’t really compare….there’s more depth to Yanxi’s storyline for one, and two, the overall production is heaps above that series in terms of quality. I actually couldn’t stand both BTROC and DITROC, as everything from casting to story to acting were subpar and worst of all, the aesthetics were horrible (costumes were outlandish and garish and the scenery looked like someone went overboard with CGI). I don’t watch too many Mainland series, but Yanxi was actually good…true, some parts did drag too much and honestly the series could’ve been way shorter than it was, plus some of the infighting and stuff got tiring after awhile, but overall the story remained interesting most of the way through (as opposed to DITROC’s story, which I found completely boring). The thing I liked most about Yanxi though were the aesthetics – the muted color scheme, the simple yet elegant costumes (many of which were historically accurate) and scene after scene of realistic looking Forbidden Palace…it gives off a feeling of authenticity, which is something that TVB series will never be able to achieve (I mean, come on – in the making of BTROC, they showed how they used CGI to turn Kowloon Garden in HK into the Imperial Gardens and you could actually see the spots where they didn’t line things up right…)

@anon
Only TVB hardcore supporters will compare BTROC and Yanxi. One has no script, crap cartoon coloured CGI and barely any actor/actresses.The other is likely one of the best ancient series ever made…

@jimmyszeto one of the best is a bit of a stretch, it certainly is better than anything TVB has done in the past 10 years or so and is beautiful to look at but it still retains a lot of problems a lot of this kind of series suffer: draggy, illogical character choices and motivations, the way the main character is written and somehow still being able to survive this long is beyond me.

War and beauty remains the gold standard for palace scheming shows for me.

To compare Yanxi to BTROC is an insult, but to compare Yanxi to DITROC is even worse because the latter (Deep) has no proper script and depth in it’s story. Nancy’s overreacting empress role who schemes just to eliminate the one and only consort in the harem is laughable.

@diana80
DITROC isn’t exactly tension and suspense is it. Nancy scheming against one concubine(Chrissie) and they tried to make out as if it was tough for viewers to solve who was the behind all the scheming. Does not exactly require Detective Investigation Files solving.

Seems that YuZheng has redeemed his reputation 100% with Yanxi. Prior to this, his dramas were panned for the very same comments you made: “the aesthetics were horrible (costumes were outlandish and garish and the scenery looked like someone went overboard with CGI)”

@msxie0714 Yup, looks like he was very careful this time…not sure if he intended to redeem himself or not but that looks like exactly what ended up happening. I heard that the costumes were made by hand by the seamstresses who actually work at the real Forbidden City in Beijing…each of the palace ladies’ costumes are worth about 400K yuan. The jewelry too, modeled after history, right down to the 3 earrings in each ear (which each woman wore differently depending on her status). The sets as well, they did a great job making it look like the real Forbidden City….I heard that some audiences were inspired by the series to actually go check out the ruins of the real Yanxi Palace and some scholars said that they actually got many of the details right with that too….

The series cost 300 million yuan to make, with only about 24 million or so going toward cast salaries….obviously they invested the money in the right places with this series…

@tiffany
That’s probably whats happened to ‘Deep in the Realm of Conscience’. The majority of the funds used to hire Annie Lui and Chrissie Chau which probably explains why Steven had no concubines apart from Nancy and Chrissie. Also nearly all the scenes took place in what they called the ‘Wu Zetian Hall’ . A pathetic series. One of the worst ever alongside ‘No Reserve’.

@peanutbutterjelly Yup…the series isn’t perfect by any means and some parts of the story did fall flat, especially in the second half (not sure if this was due to many of the deleted scenes being from the second half, so the story became a bit less coherent)…but taken as a whole, still a very worthy watch. 🙂

@m0m0
Have you watched any of it yet? The series is exactly opposite to what you are suggesting. The story is fast paced with plenty of action and great performances. It also has a good balance of tension and humour….

@m0m0 It’s true that Mainland series tend to drag and admittedly, the Yanxi series does have its faults, but the “dragging” piece isn’t as bad compared to other Mainland series. On the rare occasions when I watch Mainland series, I usually forward through most of the episode because I can’t stand the drawn out scenes, but with this one, I only forwarded through some scenes (mostly the “wordy” ones where they’re discussing some political event or whatnot). I also agree with @jimmyszeto about this series having a good balance of tension and humor…another unique trait to this series that makes it more enjoyable than most of the other drab Mainland series…

I’m not a Mainland series type of person either, but this series is one of those rare gems that actually lives up to the hype…if you’re up to trying a Mainland series, this is definitely the one to go with (just forego the TVB version though, as the Cantonese dubbing is HORRID….my mom is watching the Canto dubbed version while I’m watching the original Mandarin version and oh my god, it makes a world of difference watching the series in its original language!)

@anon
I’m sure TVB still have a very loyal group of Ruco followers (an actor I can’t take seriously anymore after seeing him hold up trashed house pictures in front of the media, in his Heshen costume) and a few Vincent followers. Apart from that they are left with Hong Kong locals who do not have alternative cantonese channel options so are forced to continue turning the channel on…

I’m just slightly better than u too previously (not really interested with mainland series), having watched only few series in decade. But you should trust the majority…this drama is really a gem and not the typical Mainland drama. I personally like this one more than the other highly successful palace drama of the same type/storyline, i.e. Empresses in the Palace.

@diana80
Three Kingdoms was good because it basically followed Romance of the Three Kingdoms and every episode covered a historical event during the period. For history readers, it is the ultimate series. The battles and armoury were magnificent.

Yes. Yanxi Palace is a big breakthrough in fast paced series within the mainland. I think all mainland series will follow this trend in the future. There will be no more king and concubines sitting around, sipping tea and chatting. Chen Jianbin will have to speed up his lines because it is very annoying…